asato_muraki: (Buddha Cat)
Add MemoryShare This Entry
By way of [livejournal.com profile] deadcat_vagrant :

The WBC to Protest Natasha Richardson's Funeral

I'm so angry, I'm numb. I don't feel anything. It's like that scene from Equilibrium where Christian Bale suddenly goes all calm. I think if I was physically in the presence of these people, I would hurt them. And enjoy it.

I think that means what they're doing is working. I truly believe the real goal of this is to infect others with hatred, and it bothers me that it's working on me. Because I really do hate them to the point I could hurt them right now.
Mood:: 'angry' angry
There are 47 comments on this entry. (Reply.)
 
posted by [identity profile] cristalia.livejournal.com at 08:50pm on 21/03/2009
I truly believe the real goal of this is to infect others with hatred

...y'know? I think you're right.
 
posted by [identity profile] asatomuraki.livejournal.com at 09:07pm on 21/03/2009
I think it's the only logical explanation. Fred Phelps is so angry that he needs to make people angry, too. It feeds something in him when people hit them or attack them or whatever. I saw him in a documentary, and when he saw people get angry at him, he looked really happy. It's like hatred is the disease and he's patient zero. The gay thing is just a convenient button to push.

It makes me angry that he could make me hate him, even for a minute, because when I hate him, he wins.

(I've had moment and I feel rational again, but it takes so much more effort than just hating him would.)
 
posted by [identity profile] yourprecious.livejournal.com at 03:28pm on 22/03/2009
It's weird circular religious logic. THE WORLD WILL HATE YOU FOR YOUR RIGHTEOUS BELIEFS. Nevermind if what you do is horrible or hate-mongering. Which means that being upset with them just reinforces their persecution complex.

I....should never be allowed near Fred Phelps. I have enough of a problem wanting to argue with the people who keep trying to sell us door-to-door Jesus.
 
posted by [identity profile] clara-swift.livejournal.com at 09:11pm on 21/03/2009
::sigh::

I just don't have words to describe how sad this makes me. It doesn't make me angry, they're not worth that it just makes me weary and sad. I'm sure Liam will deal with it with dignity. I just wish he didn't have to.
 
posted by [identity profile] asatomuraki.livejournal.com at 09:22pm on 21/03/2009
I can usually manage to be sad, too, but this time, it was definitely anger. I know that the anger isn't useful or the best thing to be feeling, but there you go. I know the family will manage.

And, I'm still glad we have freedom of speech in this country, even though it means putting up with these... people. I am close to being reasonable about again, I think. I know that, if they manage to get the proper permits that counter-protesters will deal with them. (I'll be surprised if they don't end up getting hurt somehow.) But he gives a bad name to religious folk, and Americans, and even lawyers.
 
posted by [identity profile] kellys-muse.livejournal.com at 09:36pm on 21/03/2009
They are like internet trolls IMO.
 
posted by [identity profile] asatomuraki.livejournal.com at 09:58pm on 21/03/2009
That is absolutely right. They feed off the negative attention, like trolls. It's always been a point of honor for me to say I don't hate them, because I know in my heart that is exactly what they want. But for a minute there, I really did. I think I've got over it, but it was a near thing. ;)
 
posted by [identity profile] kellys-muse.livejournal.com at 10:03pm on 21/03/2009
I get frustrated at people like that but then I figure that's what they want and I sure don't need to go walking around feeling mad! But yeah I know what you mean. ;)
 
posted by [identity profile] asatomuraki.livejournal.com at 11:02pm on 21/03/2009
Well, at least now I've come full circle to laughing at them again. I like laughing at them -- it feels so much better than murderous rage. :)
 
posted by [identity profile] kellys-muse.livejournal.com at 04:38pm on 22/03/2009
There you go, laugh at the pathetic fools!
 
posted by [identity profile] asatomuraki.livejournal.com at 05:46pm on 22/03/2009
Hee! Just so.
 
posted by [identity profile] inyadreems.livejournal.com at 10:33pm on 21/03/2009
That's... for real? I thought it was a spoof. O_O

Nah. They're taking the piss.
 
posted by [identity profile] asatomuraki.livejournal.com at 10:40pm on 21/03/2009
It's not a joke. These people do that. The press release came from the WBC website, I just didn't want to link to them. They made the same announcement about protesting Heather Ledger's funeral, but I don't know if they actually did it.

But these guys DO protest funerals of soldiers and such, a lot. They really believe what they say. It really is for real. I wish it wasn't.
 
posted by [identity profile] inyadreems.livejournal.com at 10:48pm on 21/03/2009
Then it's beyond contemptable.

And I'm trying not to giggle at Ms Ledger... ;)
 
posted by [identity profile] asatomuraki.livejournal.com at 10:54pm on 21/03/2009
Woops. My bad. darned typos. LOL. But yeah, they do this all the time. One fellow just successfully sued them for a huge settlement for defamation.
 
posted by [identity profile] elistaire.livejournal.com at 10:57pm on 21/03/2009
I hope they get sued and sued and sued. I can think of nothing better than that they lose all their money for their behaviors. Just dealing with lawsuites, win or lose, takes money.
 
posted by [identity profile] asatomuraki.livejournal.com at 11:05pm on 21/03/2009
Yes, but several of the core family members are lawyers. They had a reputation for suing people for sport (and profit!) around Topeka (where the church is) long before the real craziness started.
 
posted by [identity profile] elistaire.livejournal.com at 11:11pm on 21/03/2009
Isn't it generally said that lawyers are just spawn of the devil?

Makes sense. They're crazies; they're lawyers.
 
posted by [identity profile] asatomuraki.livejournal.com at 11:17pm on 21/03/2009
They're like the Topeka branch of Wolfram & Hart. They did manage to disbar the patriarch, but several of his children still practice law.
 
posted by [identity profile] clara-swift.livejournal.com at 07:30am on 22/03/2009
And several of the grandchildren are studying it.
 
posted by [identity profile] asatomuraki.livejournal.com at 03:48pm on 22/03/2009
Yup -- It's the only way they survive.
 
posted by [identity profile] yourprecious.livejournal.com at 03:31pm on 22/03/2009
There's a passage in the Bible about how it's wrong to sue people or something and lawyers are bad...I only remember it because I learned about it in Sunday school as a kid, and my parents are lawyers.
 
posted by [identity profile] asatomuraki.livejournal.com at 03:49pm on 22/03/2009
LOL! Well, I hardly think all lawyers are evil, but I guess you could make a case. *snerk*
 
posted by [identity profile] yourprecious.livejournal.com at 03:56pm on 22/03/2009
I grew up terrified for my parents' souls. *LOL* Because supposedly they were the agents of evil or something.

Oh, man....one more thing to write down for therapy.
 
posted by [identity profile] asatomuraki.livejournal.com at 05:52pm on 22/03/2009
aw, honey! *pat,pat*
 
posted by [identity profile] clara-swift.livejournal.com at 07:29am on 22/03/2009
Louis Theroux did a BBC programme on them a couple of years ago called 'The Most Hated Family in America'. It was scary viewing. You can usually find it on On Demand services. It's worth a watch.

They are 100% real and 1,000,000% crazy.
 
posted by [identity profile] inyadreems.livejournal.com at 09:26pm on 24/03/2009
I'd watch but I know I'd only get upset. That's their aim, I presume.
 
posted by [identity profile] asatomuraki.livejournal.com at 09:49pm on 24/03/2009
That is their aim, exactly, I think. I'm a bit miffed at myself for letting them get to me last week.
 
posted by [identity profile] elistaire.livejournal.com at 10:55pm on 21/03/2009
Wow. That is so full of ridiculous hate. Seriously ridiculous hate. I know these people are serious, they *think* those things are serious crimes, but to people not consumed by stupidity and hate it's on that border-line between it looking so made-up and utterly comic that you want to laugh at it and terror because people really believe in stuff that enormously dumb. I'd feel sorry for them, to be that full of poppycock and brain-rot, except they scare the dickins out of me. They're teaching their kids that sort of nastiness.

That they choose to go to people's funerals and display their dumbness, ignorance, and hate is yet another level of what-the-fuckedness. It goes beyond my capabilities to even conceive of the hideousness in their heads that they would do such things. How can they think they're good people? (Yes, rhetorical question. There is no answer to that.)
 
posted by [identity profile] asatomuraki.livejournal.com at 11:01pm on 21/03/2009
They've set it up so that when people get angry at them, it confirms and reaffirms their belief that they are right, that they are the only ones willing to speak the truth to a wicked nation, or some such.

It IS completely ridiculous, which is good, because now I've come back around to laughing at them. But, yeah. They are this one family of crazies. Most of them are attorneys, too, which makes them really hard to get anything to stick to them legally.
 
posted by [identity profile] yourprecious.livejournal.com at 03:32pm on 22/03/2009
These are the people who keep so many others away from Christianity. Fail fail fail fail.
 
posted by [identity profile] asatomuraki.livejournal.com at 03:47pm on 22/03/2009
Exactly why I don't think proselytizing is their goal. They just want people to hate -- gays, the Phelpses themselves, I don't think they care overmuch which. It's kind of mind-boggling.
 
posted by [identity profile] yourprecious.livejournal.com at 03:55pm on 22/03/2009
I need to find that Family Guy clip...

http://onegoodmove.org/1gm/1gmarchive/2007/03/the_rapture.html

All of these guys. This is how I see them.
 
posted by [identity profile] asatomuraki.livejournal.com at 05:52pm on 22/03/2009
Hahahahahahah-snort-hahahahaha!
 
posted by [identity profile] yourprecious.livejournal.com at 06:48pm on 22/03/2009
Now, let's ALL hate that rock!
 
posted by [identity profile] yourprecious.livejournal.com at 08:36pm on 22/03/2009
I looked up the verses they're "summarizing" in their "insightful" picket signs using the NRSV...

Uh....

I don't know what translation they're using, but by my reading, they're both taking the verses out of context and pulling stuff out of thin air.
 
posted by [identity profile] asatomuraki.livejournal.com at 08:48pm on 22/03/2009
Of course they are! That's part of the crazy. ;) There are actually some very insightful rebuttals of the crazy out there. Maybe I'll post some when I have a moment.
 
posted by [identity profile] yourprecious.livejournal.com at 09:56pm on 22/03/2009
The last one is especially special.

And yeah, I'll probably do the same...sit down with my NRSV, put things in context, and type it up for my own amusement.
 
posted by [identity profile] asatomuraki.livejournal.com at 05:40pm on 23/03/2009
You do that, too? LOL! I knew I couldn't be the only one, but...Still, I should have known. ;)
 
posted by [identity profile] yourprecious.livejournal.com at 10:01pm on 23/03/2009
*LOL* To be fair, I didn't really get into the habit until I took a course called Women in Christianity...Loyola made you take 9 hours of religion courses. The instructor was really big on analyzing things in context. So now I do that.

That, and read lots of books about radical religious groups and cults. Uhm, and Phelps' sermons sound frighteningly similar to a few of the guys I've been studying...
 
posted by [identity profile] asatomuraki.livejournal.com at 10:12pm on 23/03/2009
Well, I've been doing the whole "make notes and write an essay" thing occasionally since my tweens. *blush* Not always on religion, but just anytime something really bugged me, I'd write out my thoughts on the subject and why something I'd heard or read made no sense. Heh.
 
posted by [identity profile] yourprecious.livejournal.com at 11:47pm on 23/03/2009
I like writing essays. And analyzing books. And movies. And...random things. :) I like to pick tough points of view and defend them to see if I can.

....except in this case. Well, okay, I guess some would consider my take on Christianity tough to defend.

But I can't wrap my mind around Phelps. I've JUST managed to begin wrapping my mind around polygamy after reading so much about it.
 
posted by [identity profile] asatomuraki.livejournal.com at 11:01am on 24/03/2009
With Phelps, what made sense of it to me was looking at pathology more than religion. He's a sick man, but clever.
 
posted by [identity profile] narniadear.livejournal.com at 04:42pm on 23/03/2009
(That's so weird that you said that about Equilibrium 'cause I just saw it for the first time last night and I really liked that part. Carry on.)
 
posted by [identity profile] asatomuraki.livejournal.com at 05:28pm on 23/03/2009
It's an under-rated movie, I think. It certainly gets that moment right, anyway. ;)

 
posted by [identity profile] narniadear.livejournal.com at 04:43pm on 23/03/2009
Ok, now I've read the link. That's just....*boggles*
 
posted by [identity profile] asatomuraki.livejournal.com at 05:27pm on 23/03/2009
I don't think they actually did it -- I imagine they couldn't get the proper permits. Which means that the press release was just to make folks angry and I'm miffed at myself that I let it work so well. *sigh*

May

SunMonTueWedThuFriSat
      1
 
2
 
3
 
4
 
5
 
6
 
7
 
8
 
9
 
10
 
11
 
12
 
13
 
14 15
 
16
 
17
 
18
 
19
 
20
 
21
 
22
 
23
 
24
 
25
 
26
 
27
 
28
 
29
 
30
 
31